Pseudo Entry (But its Crafting at Least!)

So I have been messing about *a lot* with fingerloop braiding. Honestly, once you get started with this stuff, it is sort of an obsession. I have gone through every pattern available for one person on this site and have totally fallen in love with the chevron pattern:

1) It's Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!;
2) It goes super fast (unlike this beast - which is pretty but tiiiime consuming);
3) It can be done up in a variation with multiple colors that super pretty trim (I'll post photos, promise);

Plus, by using a couple of paired bit of chevron fingerlooping and a bit of stitchery down the middle, I changed my garters from this:



To this:


The husband is thinking of getting into casting again now that he has his forge set up. There is talk of me producing these (and the buckles) for resale at events. Could be fun!

'Cheater' Tellerbarret - In Wool

So awhile back I was harassing a Landsknecht friend of mine about his uncovered head. After bearing up under the torment for a bit, he pointed out that if I didn't like him walking around without a hat on I was perfectly capable of making him a hat to fix the situation.

Well crap...

So, after some discussion and some woodcut viewings he decided upon a Tellerbarret (a 'pizza hat' to those of you not well versed in the terms of the period). One can only assume he wanted to have a wide brim to hide his precious, fair-skinned face from the sun. *chortle* 

So I got to work, using these instructions which I posted YEARS ago to the das Heiligesturm Fahnlein BBS board after having been shown how to produce this version by a friend down south. 

Of course, the last time I made one of these up it was in linen. And let me tell you - making it out of wool was a VERY different experience. 

( Cut for those who need their bandwidth for more important things... )

This project took me longer than I thought it would, but I am totally pleased with the results. I am not so sure that this is a 'cheat' really - I mean, it's a wire rimmed brim but it is totally possible that they used wire this way in the period. 

While I would be cautious to take on another one of these in wool (and would probably use a lighter weight wool than the remnant of  medium-coat-weight wool/cashmere that we used here) I actually prefer the final result in this fabric to the earlier linen model I made. It is no where near as floppy and I suspect that it will hold up better in the long run.